Monique Williams Email and Phone Number

My research area is co-factor biosynthesis in mycobacteria, with a special interest in iron-sulphur clusters. Proteins that require iron-sulphur clusters are involved in various critical pathways in the cell, and therefore iron-sulphur cluster assembly represents an important, yet under-explored area of mycobacterial metabolism.

I received training in the macrophage and mouse model of infection of Tuberculosis, and applied these techniques to study the virulence of a mutant of M. tuberculosis that I had previously generated.

I am involved in a number of projects studying the physiology of M. tuberculosis, specifically focused on understanding Molybdopterin cofactor (MoCo) biosynthesis (follow-up on my previous studies) and drug resistance (initiation of new projects).I am also involved in the supervision and training of students and lecturing in the Division of Molecular Biology (Stellenbosch University).

I conducted research aimed at understanding Molybdopterin Cofactor (MoCo) biosynthesis in M. tuberculosis and Mycobacterium smegmatis. The findings of my study were published in the following manuscript:M. J. Williams, B. D. Kana, V Mizrahi. Functional analysis of molybdopterin biosynthesis in mycobacteria identifies a fused molybdopterin synthase in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. J Bact. (2011) 193(1):98-106.